Karen Green descended upon the Payne household in a flurry: large blond curls fashioned by hot rollers; what appeared to be a trench coat in midsummer; and breathless apologies about ‘the whole mess’ as though Jeff had dented Mr. Payne’s car with his bike or thrown an egg at their front door on Halloween.
Lia tried not to feel panicked about the distance that had grown between her and Mrs. Green; one day, everything will be normal, just like it was before. But then there was the added fact that Mrs. Green had changed so much, and this somehow made their meeting anticlimactic, for the lady sitting across from her could have been a complete stranger, some woman muttering to her own reflection in the window of a bus.
Mrs. Green carried extra padding around her hips, and her face was mottled
